Suspect in deaths of Eddy Curry's ex-girlfriend, daughter had 'dollar signs in his eyes'

Jason MeisnerTribune reporter

An attorney on trial in the slayings of former Chicago Bulls player Eddy Curry’s infant daughter and her mother was an abusive boyfriend who had “dollar signs in his eyes” when he represented her in a child-support case against Curry and later struck up a romantic relationship with her, prosecutors said today in Cook County Criminal Court.

But attorneys for Frederick Goings contend no physical evidence ties him to the two murders and that Chicago police investigators ignored other possible suspects while zeroing in on him.

“The state is going to throw a lot at you and ask you to make some guesses about what happened,” Assistant Public Defender Brett Balmer told jurors.

Trial began today for Goings, a former family attorney, in the 2009 fatal shootings of Nova Henry and Ava Curry-Henry, who was 10 months old and Curry’s second child with Henry.

In an opening statement to jurors, Assistant State’s Attorney Jim McKay said Goings began a rocky, two-year romantic relationship with Henry shortly after agreeing to represent her in child-support fight with Curry, who at the time was playing for the New York Knicks.

Henry had taken out an order of protection against Goings in 2007 after alleging he threatened her and her son, but she later allowed the order to lapse, McKay said.

Shortly before the murders, Goings, 40, learned that Henry hired a new lawyer and was going to contest paying Goings nearly $24,000 in legal fees, McKay said. On the afternoon of Jan. 24, 2009, Goings grabbed a handgun he had purchased at a gun store and approached Henry as she was stood at the bottom of the stairs inside her South Loop town home, according to McKay.

“He pointed that gun at that 24-year-old mother and he started squeezing the trigger,” McKay said. “She had to be running for her life, with her child in her arms.”

Henry’s mother, Yolan Henry, cried quietly as she testified about how she discovered her daughter’s bullet-riddled body near the front door a few hours later.

“I just remember screaming at that point because I knew that she was already dead,” she said.

Henry’s other child with Curry, Noah, who at the time was 3, was found in the town home unharmed.

Yolan Henry said she was sitting in a car with Noah waiting for police to arrive and asked the boy, “Who hurt momma?”

“He turned around and looked at me and said, ‘Frederick,’” she testified. “He repeated, ‘Frederick did it.’”

She said the boy then “put his finger up to his lips” and said ‘Shhhhh.’”

Goings was found later that same day at a Comfort Inn in LaPorte County, Ind. A bullet matching the caliber and characteristics of the murder weapon was found on the front passenger seat, according to McKay.

In addition, he said, Goings was seen “going for a walk in the woods” near the motel despite the frigid weather and later swimming in the pool without a bathing suit and scrubbing at his fingernails.

McKay told jurors that cell phone records and video surveillance placed Goings at the town home near the time of the murders. A laptop found in the town home showed Goings' e-mail account was accessed that day and someone had sent a message from his e-mail account minutes before neighbors heard gunshots, McKay said.

Someone had also downloaded a file showing Henry was contesting money that Goings wanted for purported legal services, McKay said.

Curry, a former standout at Thornwood High School in South Holland, was drafted by the Bulls in 2001 and later played for the New York Knicks, the Miami Heat and the Dallas Mavericks before signing with a team in China last year.

The 7-foot Harvey native is on the witness list for Goings’ trial, but attorneys have not said whether he will be called to testify.